ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2012
Pregnancy outcome after gestational exposure to erythromycin - a population-based register study from Norway.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does early pregnancy exposure to macrolide antibiotics lead to major birth defects? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Prenatal Exposure to Macrolides and Risk of Congenital Malformations: A Meta-Analysis.Drug safety · 2020Pooled it
- Associations between use of macrolide antibiotics during pregnancy and adverse child outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Three Decades of Valproate: A Current Model for Studying Autism Spectrum Disorder.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Review
- Antibiotic use in endodontic treatment during pregnancy: A narrative review.European journal of translational myology · 2022Review
- Association between use of macrolides in pregnancy and risk of major birth defects: nationwide, register based cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Article
- An Update Review on Listeria Infection in Pregnancy.Infection and drug resistance · 2021Review
- Placental transporter-mediated drug interactions and offspring congenital anomalies.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Article
- Relationship between Maternal and First Year of Life Dispensations of Antibiotics and Antiasthmatics.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- A review of diagnosis and treatment of acne in adult female patients.International journal of women's dermatology · 2018Review
- Drug prescribing during pregnancy in a central region of Italy, 2008-2012.BMC public health · 2018Article
- Use of antibiotics during pregnancy and the risk of major congenital malformations: a population based cohort study.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Article
- Maternal intravenous administration of azithromycin results in significant fetal uptake in a sheep model of second trimester pregnancy.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2014Article
- Fetal safety of erythromycin. An update of Swedish data.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2014Article
- Challenges in interventional radiology: the pregnant patient.Seminars in interventional radiology · 2013Review
- Fetal safety of macrolides.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2013Article
- Safety of macrolides during pregnancy.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2013Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsErythromycin is a macrolide antibiotic indicated for respiratory tract infections, genital chlamydia and skin infections. It has recently been suggested that erythromycin use in the first trimester of pregnancy can increase the risk of congenital cardiovascular malformations. This study aimed to determine whether erythromycin exposure in the first trimester is associated with cardiovascular or other malformations.
methodsWe studied 180 120 women in Norway who were pregnant during 2004-2007. Data on all live births stillbirths and induced abortions after 12 gestational weeks from The Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN) were linked to information from the Norwegian prescription database (NorPD). We compared the pregnancy outcomes of women who had taken erythromycin (n= 1786, 1.0%), penicillin V (n= 4921, 2.7%) or amoxicillin (n= 1599, 0.9%) in their first trimester with outcomes of women who had not taken any systemic antibiotics (n= 163 653, 90.9%) during this period.
resultsThe risk of cardiovascular malformations was not significantly different with or without exposure to erythromycin in the first trimester (adjusted OR = 1.2 [95% CI 0.8, 1.8]) or in the most vulnerable period of heart formation (adjusted OR = 1.6 [95% CI 0.9-3.0]). Sub-analyses showed that the risk for any specific malformations was not increased with erythromycin, macrolides, penicillin V or amoxicillin compared with no antibiotic use in first trimester.
conclusionsThis large, population-based register study did not find that exposure to erythromycin or macrolides in the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with fetal cardiovascular or other malformations. These results suggest that the risk of erythromycin use during early pregnancy, if any, is low.
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